Posted on 03/31/2005 12:44:56 PM PST by BJungNan
So Your Computer is Running Slow
When you first bought your computer, it zinged. It was faster than the computer you replaced. It was "upgraded"! But lately something happened. It slowed to a crawl, taking forever to boot up and net surfing - especially for you dial-up users - became excruciatingly, impossibly slow. It is possible to recapture that lost speed.
What happened? There are a few culprits. We personally hate long winded explanations, so we will keep this short. Or, you can forget the explanations and just skip to the fixes. For those of you still with us, here are the three most common reasons your computer has slowed down. Two deal with slow internet browsing and one is what is causing your computer to take so long to boot up is causing your computer to run slow.
1). You have not cleared out your temporary internet files.
2). You are loaded up with programs in your start menu.
3). You are loaded up with spyware and need to clean it out.
Okay, follow us here and we will take you to the steps and the explanations. Those other guys that jumped ahead are at the same page. But you now know where you are headed.
Are you trying to ruin my business?
Thanks for doing this, I tried it last month when you (I think) posted it. You are very helpful to those of us who are computer illiterate!
4... Run it on 240 V, instead of 120.
actually there is more that you can do, besides de-frag and file scans. Norton Utilities Disk Doctor is Great! It fixes crosslinked files and directory structures...
There's freeware called HiJack This! that will list all the processes and their paths when Windows is first started and give you an option to delete. But print the log file and google search on questionable files first.
Or how about 408 @400 Hz?
Seriously, thanks for the tips. After my daughters have been on the machine IM'ing it REALLY seems to slow down.
Bump for later
Any ideas,anyone?
I have a friend in the same business. He has been called out to the same office to fix the computers four times for the same reason: They called and said the computer would not start. They did not have the monitor turned out.
Myself, I'm still trying to figure out why this foot switch is so hard to use. Makes moving the little pointer thingy really hard to move around the screen.
Get A Cable Modem connection. Get A Cable Modem connection. Get A Cable Modem connection.
I was a dial-up hold out for a long time. I will never go back.
deleting *.tmp files is nice, but theres a few other things you can do too. Add a 7200rpm 1GB hard drive (they're cheap!) as master on 2nd ide and use it for the page file (get it off your system drive) only; MS says set the file size to 1.5x min to 2x max the amount of ram you have, but setting it to the same for both min and max works best. That will speed things up a bit. And get a pagefile defrag program and run it once in awhile.
No cable out here in the sticks.
I just cleared out my temporary internet files. Last time I did it must have been two months ago. Yikes.
how far off the beaten path are you? are you out in the sticks? if you are, 28k might be all you can get. although i have seen people with wiring that needed maintenance like cleaning/tightening terminals at the junction box pick up speed. get tweakdun for tweaking your dial up.
just check the properties for your dial up connection and make sure the settings for data throughput is at its highest.
one other thing; if you have sattellite tv, a sat modem isnt much more...
There used to be a trick where you could use two modems, one for sending out and the other for receiving data. You need to phone lines and I don't remember how to set it up. Maybe someone else on here knows.
Any ideas,anyone?
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1. Road Runner Cable !
2. Road Runner Cable !!
3. Road Runner Cable !!! ;-))
Oh, didnt see that. Well 28 in the sticks is understandable. Did you ask if they have DSL near you yet? You have to be withing 1500ft (or is it 15k? hmmm) of the switching office.
"...my dial-up sucks..."
Check with your phone company if you are consistently slow and nothing seems to work. I just returned a guy's computer two weeks ago and it was his phonme line which was the problem. I had been knocking his internet provider when I saw the performance at his place (24 kbs), then took it home and things consistently performed at 53.2 kbs. When I took it back, it returned to 24 kbs. He checked with the phone company and all his sub-division worked at this lower rate. In fact, the phone company said by law, they only have to guarantee 14 kbs. (Guess standards are still for an analog world.)
I'll have to wait,the town is starting to boom,cable is on the way.
"...cable is on the way."
Hope you don't have to wait TOO long. Good luck.
Take it into one of those and tell them you'd like your computer spin balanced.
According to my research it is...DirecWay charges about $600 for the equipment and installation. And then it is $59/mo. Outrageous.
I tried that already. They just looked at me really funny.
Another question. Can I copy the Internet to my own computer so I won't have to pay for internet service?
zzzZZZzzzz
"...furthermore, I can't seem to find the "Start Menu"."
lol...is that anything like my K-Menu?? ;)
"Take it into one of those and tell them you'd like your computer spin balanced."
hahahaha...I wonder what they would say!! lol
ping for later
ROFL!!
Tell us if you get some serious inquiries!
It might happen!
even if you have an existing service for your tv?
Know of a good pagefile defrag program? My computer has gone through all the steps possible to speed it up, but my pagefile is still in 6 fragments. I have no idea how to fix that. Any help would be appreciated.
???
Is that your SWAP file.....try deleting it and then do a cold start...so windows rebuilds it....
I put this file in the root of c:\ and you can set it to run at next boot, every boot or uninstall.
The file is here
http://www.sysinternals.com/files/pagedfrg.zip
as a part of this page
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/pagedefrag.shtml
PageDefrag works on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Server 2003. I have XP Pro. The guy might have something for some other os here
http://www.sysinternals.com/index.shtml
under utilities
Yes or in xp you can set a group policy to clean it out everytime you shut down.
See link at #41!
Has a good procedure!
I have enough memory, I am not sure the Swap ever happens.
BTTT....thank you.
Yea you can move it and move it back, that will do it if you have a partition, or enable the group policy in the settings in admin control panel. If you delete it altogether it might slow the pc way down until you re-create it and boot again. But that defrag file I linked above works nice, very small, very quick. and no spyware!
one way to keep it from getting defragged as easily, and msdn and technet suggest is to make the min and max size of the file the same size, typically 1.5x the size or amount of physical ram.
I have to agree, when I switched to Linux I quit working ON my PC and started working WITH my PC!!
Ain't that the truth!
Running Xandros V3 here.....know very little really about linux.
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Freeware alternative
2004-11-24 11:18:54 ecloninger [Reply | View]
There is a freeware pagefile defragmenter available at www.sysinternals.com. I've been using it for several years on NT/2000/XP with no problems. It does not require you to turn off virtual memory and it does it's job requiring only one reboot.
Thank you.
I'll keep that link.
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